Some groups are urging a race to the bottom

So I see this ad on DU for "save Missouri jobs".

Their spiel is that since Kansas passed a really horrible evil tax plan, that Missouri must match it, or lose jobs and businesses to Kansas.

Of course, that is just the sort of domino effect that the oligarchs would love to see. The Kansas tax plan heavily favors the oligarchs, so those oligarchs would love to see it spread all across the United States.

I find their arguments to be weak. First, because there are some business with no incentive to move. Retail businesses have their success based on their location. Those which have good locations in Missouri are not gonna want to pack up and move to a new location in Kansas. Further, given Kansas's need and Governor Brownback's stated desire to raise sales taxes in Kansas, retail in Missouri actually becomes more attractive for Kansans.

Second, even for non-retail, moving is expensive and complicated. How many locations are readily available in Kansas? What about my workforce? Will they commute? Will I have to replace them with Kansans? Further, if the owner of the business still lives in Missouri, then they will still have to pay Missouri taxes on their Kansas income. Same with the workers, if they live in Missouri.

Granted, some busineses already have moved, even before there was the incentive of zero taxes. There's always gonna be some of that. But I expect this Kansas tax plan to be bad for Kansas, and I hope some day we will be able to change it, get rid of it. If Missouri joins us on the bottom though, that will make it tougher.

So I would ask you to contact your state legislators and Governor and tell them you oppose a race to the bottom.

Some reform might not be a bad thing - reduce the rates paid by couples making less than $30,000 a year, and put some higher brackets in for people making over $100,000 a year. Done right it would be a tax cut for most Missourians.